Bins strike protesters urged to ‘show respect’ at Birmingham council meeting
Another Birmingham Council meeting saw outbursts from the public gallery just seconds after bins strike protesters were urged to “show respect”.
The council’s full meeting on Tuesday was suddenly brought to a halt following the interruption, with banners being unfurled and the sound of whistles filling the council chamber.
The bins strike has rumbled on since the start of the year and was triggered by a long-running dispute between the Labour-run council and Unite the union.
“The council were never bankrupt, this never needed to happen,” one man shouted from the public gallery this week. “Get back to negotiations.”
Whistles continued to blare as the Lord Mayor and other councillors left the chamber while security attempted to control the tense situation.
The dramatic scenes came just seconds after a Birmingham councillor urged protesters to “show respect” as members of Unite held a demonstration next to the council house.
Before the interruption from the public gallery, chanting and alarms from outside could be heard as councillors paid tribute to and held minute’s silences for former colleagues who had recently died.
“It’s a pity that the colleagues outside don’t appreciate what we are doing in the first half hour of this meeting,” councillor Paul Tilsley said.
“Because we are paying tribute for colleagues that have given a great deal of service to this city in an effort to try and make it a better place.
“I hope that the message will go outside that please show some respect for the first half hour of the council meeting.”
Upon the meeting resuming, Lord Mayor councillor Zafar Iqbal said there was a “standard of behaviour” expected from those in the public gallery.
“If there is another disturbance, we will adjourn again,” he said. “What I don’t want to do is exclude the people who are already in the gallery who have come to ask questions.”
The prestigious ceremony which saw Coun Iqbal become Lord Mayor saw similar disruption this year, with supporters of the striking bin workers shouting from the gallery.
The following month, council leader John Cotton was answering a question about the industrial action from a resident when another man began angrily questioning the councillor from the public gallery.
“Would you take an £8,000 pay cut Cotton?” the man shouted. “Would you? Come on?
“That’s what you’re expecting hard working bin workers to take.”
The strike was sparked by the loss of the Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) role, with striking workers raising concerns about pay.
The Labour-run council’s leadership has repeatedly insisted a “fair and reasonable” offer had been made and have disputed the £8,000 figure.
The local authority confirmed in the summer that it was ending talks with Unite to resolve the bins crisis dispute – but there have been recent calls for negotiations to resume.
Council leader John Cotton said there has been “extensive attempts at negotiation under the umbrella of ACAS” – the independent arbitration service.
But he has said that one issue has been the council’s equal pay “red lines” that it refuses to cross, adding that doing so would risk further financial woes.
The protester’s claims that the council was “never bankrupt” came after a group of academics and financial experts recently argued that errors in forecasts of reserves and equal pay liabilities led to the council declaring itself effectively bankrupt.
However, the council has said that when the section 114 [bankruptcy] notice was issued it faced an £87m budget shortfall – a deficit which had not taken the potential equal pay liability into account.
It also said that the council had not at that point secured government approval to cover equal pay liability through borrowing or asset sales.
Council leader John Cotton added that the authority was “on track to deliver a balanced budget without the need for exceptional financial support” this year.
